Kudos to Greg for making the link. The various estimates I hear for the number of mentally ill inmates in Texas prisons range from 16% to 22% or so, depending on who is estimating and what they're counting, and nearly every such statistic you see includes a caveat that mental illness likely is underreported, as is the case with society at large.

County jails have it just as bad: Because of the issues reported by Ms. Ball, today they're required to house mentally ill inmates for months waiting for beds in state mental hospitals to open up - all before the defendant has even been tried.

Bottom line: Texas' failure to invest in indigent mental health services on the front end accounts for a big portion of today's prison overcrowding pressures. At this juncture, additional budget cuts for mental health would cost the state MORE, even in the short run, while burdening society with devastating, avoidable social costs down the line.

Southern, daily and good for you

Grits for Breakfast looks at the Texas criminal justice system, with a little politics and whatever
else suits the author's fancy thrown in. All opinions are my own. The facts belong to everybody. Who is this guy?

"I always tell people interested in these issues that your blog is the most important news source, and have had high-ranking corrections officials tell me they read it regularly."

- Scott Medlock, Texas Civil Rights Project

"a helluva blog"

- Solomon Moore, NY Times criminal justice correspondent

"Congrats on building one of the most read and important blogs on a specific policy area that I've ever seen"

- Donald Lee, Texas Conference of Urban Counties

GFB "is a fact-packed, trustworthy reporter of the weirdness that makes up corrections and criminal law in the Lone Star State" and has "shown more naked emperors than Hans Christian Andersen ever did."

-Attorney Bob Mabry, Woodlands

"Grits really shows the potential of a single-state focused criminal law blog"

- Corey Yung, Sex Crimes Blog

"I regard Grits for Breakfast as one of the most welcome and helpful vehicles we elected officials have for understanding the problems and their solutions."

Tommy Adkisson,Bexar County Commissioner

"dude really has a pragmatic approach to crime fighting, almost like he’s some kind of statistics superhero"